Targets of Opportunity Experiment: Short Range Aids/Radio Aids Principal Findings: Waterway Performance, Design and Evaluation Study.
Abstract
This report describes one of a series of man-in-the-loop simulation studies designed to assist the USCG in the design and evaluation of systems of aids to navigation. Previous studies have examined various configurations of buoys in the absence of any other visible objects. The present study was undertaken to determine the extent to which representative visual surroundings would augment the effectiveness of a system of aids. In addition to comparing performance in the presence of a typical visual scene of the visual environment were varied in order to better define the means by which the visual scene affords improved performance. The results indicated that aids to navigation are in fact more effective in typical visual surroundings than they are with no other objects in the scene. It was influenced by a variety of factors including the density of objects in the scene and the distance of objects from the waterway. However, the presence of a visual environment was generally not found to improve performance for a suboptimal buoy configuration to that of an optimal configuration. The implications of the experiment for waterways design are discussed, and guidelines for the evaluation of visual environments are presented.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA203762
Entities
People
- K. G. Forstmeier
- M. W. Smith
- W. S. Brown